Above Poster: (C) 2023 Innomagic Productions. Used for promotional purposes only, all rights reserved, image not monetized.
Greetings valued Dan's Movie Report readers. Across my desk today comes a brand new film from producer Paul Hickman and director Russ Emanuel called 'The Assassin's Apprentice 2: Silbadores of the Canary Islands'. This 25 minute short film is actually a part two of the series, the first film titled 'The Assassin's Apprentice' film was released in 2018. Actually the second installment was mainly filmed prior to the pandemic, so post production has taken a bit longer than usual.
Full disclosure, as in the first film, I donated money as a contributor to the Indiegogo campaign, however I had zero input on cast selection, plot or production locations, nor any ideas regarding this film. I watch and review many short films, and do my best to compare them to other films of similar budgets and ideas. Obviously, a short film is an attempt at eventually producing a full length feature. Russ has directed many shorts and features, I must say objectively that this is probably his most ambitious production.
For brevity I will shorten the name to 'TAA 2', this film is a full ten minutes longer than the first film, and ties into the themes of the first film. Essentially Actress Tarah Paige portrays Kaylee, a green Assassin, who has to learn tricks of the trade. In the second film, she has begun to do things her own way, a bit of a rebel.
Since
this is very early on in the film festival run of 'TAA 2' I have
decided to make this a very basic and spoiler free review, Russ is
very active on submitting to the film festival circuit and I am sure
throughout the next year or more the film should screen in the area
where you live. Russ has informed me the film will actually be
screening in South Florida April 14th-
16th
ASSASSIN’S APPRENTICE 2 MAJOR NEW
SELECTION!!! We
just got word that “The Assassin’s Apprentice 2” is an OFFICIAL
SELECTION and WILL SCREEN at the Miami International Science Fiction
Film Festival (MiSciFi), Thursday April, 27th, 2023, at 4:15pm in Miami,
Florida! Thank you to the Festival and Go Team Assassins 2! The festival takes place in The Tower Theater https://www.google.com/maps/place/MDC's+Tower+Theater+Miami/@25.7654401,-80.2222477,17z/data=!3m1!4b1!4m6!3m5!1s0x88d9b6f0b8608a2d:0x85e1d388a939795f!8m2!3d25.7654353!4d-80.2196728!16s%2Fm%2F09v47qw?coh=164777&entry=tt&shorturl=1
Overall, I like the direction the saga is going, Tarah Paige is improving as an actress, and has made this role her own, putting full effort into the project. I always enjoy when people who are known for stunts branch out into full acting roles as well. Tarah is bright, bubbly, playful and fits in this setting.
'TAA' and 'TAA 2' fall firmly into the sci-fi realm but there is a decent amount of action, enough for action fans to possibly enjoy them. The movies and especially the second part have a variety of drone footage and exotic locations, allowing for the viewer to be transported into the world. Tarah can handle the free running and most of the physical aspects of action with ease. This is not a 'John Wick' action film or a highly cerebral science fiction endeavor. 'TAA 2' really falls into the story building and casual humor sci-fi.
In 'TAA 2' as in the first film look for roles from Star Trek actors. Russ and Producer/Writer Paul Hickman are huge trek fans like myself, and have a knack for obtaining the services of actors from the various series. In the second film look for Armin Shimerman as Roy and Tracee Cocco as Gwen.
I am curious about what will happen in the third installment of this saga. Apparently Paul Hickman has ideas of a feature film and or a series. I will say I enjoyed the second film as much as the first film, but I feel it is kind of important to watch the first film. My review is here for the first flick: http://dansmoviereport.blogspot.com/2018/05/the-assassins-apprentice-2018-movie.html
I invite all of my readers to check out Russ's official site especially the news portion as it has detailed screening information for 'TAA 2' http://russem.com/news.html
Overall my rating is the same as the first film, a high quality, well produced and edited short, worthy of a watch, and rates an 8 out of 10. Throughout 2023 watch my site for updates and of course, other surprises!
